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May 21, 2014

Police recover seven guns from Oyo NURTW chieftain

•Auxiliary: I bought them to protect myself •Ten ‘fake soldiers’ held

•The Lagos State Police Command has paraded a factional leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi, a.k.a. Auxiliary, for alleged stockpiling of arms and ammunition.

One AK 47 rifle, one 9mm pistol, five Automatic Pump Action rifles and assorted ammunition were recovered from Lamidi.

Lamidi said he bought them from Abdulazeez Amao to protect himself.

He said: “I bought the AK 47 for N350,000 and the pistol, N350,000. I bought them to protect myself because there was a time assassins were after me. I do not rob with them. I know where this victimisation is coming from.
“The All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to rope me because I am in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They asked me to join them and because I refused, they decided to put me in trouble. I am a strong member of the PDP and I do not regret it.”

Police Commissioner Umar Manko said “Sequel to the arrest of a notorious illegal arms dealer, Abdulazeez Amao, who smuggled AK 47 rifles from Mali and Burkina Faso to Nigeria on March 10, and the recovery of 10 AK 47 rifles, Amao confessed that Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi, the former chairman of the Oyo State NURTW, bought one AK47 rifle and one English pistol from him.

“Consequently, I directed the officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Abba Kyari, to go after Lamidi. Two SARS Lagos decoy teams were briefed and deployed to Oyo State with extensive GSM data obtained from Lamidi’s phone number. After three days of diligent follow up, Lamidi was arrested at Olodo in Ibadan on May 10 at about 2:30am while driving in his ash colour Nissan Quest space bus.
“He confessed to have given his AK 47 rifle to one Tirimisiyu Olowoposi in Ibadan. Efforts to arrest Timirisiyu proved abortive as he is already aware of Lamidi’s arrest. Kyari and his men are working to arrest him soonest.”
Ten suspected fake soldiers were also paraded.

One of the suspects, John Musa, who allegedly operates in FESTAC with his gang, said he stole the military uniform in a commercial bus.

Musa said: “I escort vehicles carry goods so that they would not be harassed by policemen and NURTW members. I am paid N3,500 per day for the job. I never knew I would be caught. A soldier at Ojo Barracks exposed me and handed me over to the military police, who handed me over to the Commander of Area E police Command.”